LEAVE06_0009_cs.jpg Event on 10/4/07 in San Rafael Sheila Salas (cq - right) is visited by her daughter Michelle Salas Stratmore (cq), 34, and granddaughter Skyler Stratmore (cq), six-months -old, at her San Rafael home. Sheila Salas was the primary caregiver for her sister , Kathleen Murphy, when she was dying of breast cancer last year. Now there are two bills on Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk would broaden the law providing paid family leave to employees who need time off from work to provide caregiving for ill siblings, in-laws, grandparents and grandchildren. Photographed October 4, 2007.
Chris Stewart / The Chronicle Sheila Salas, Michelle Salas Stratmore, Skyler Stratmore MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT

Photo: Chris Stewart

LEAVE06_0009_cs.jpg Event on 10/4/07 in San Rafael Sheila Salas (cq...

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LEAVE06_0031_cs.jpg Event on 10/4/07 in San Rafael A copy photo of Kathleen Murphy (cq). Sheila Salas (cq) was the primary caregiver for her sister, Kathleen Murphy, when she was dying of breast cancer last year. Now there are two bills on Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk would broaden the law providing paid family leave to employees who need time off from work to provide caregiving for ill siblings, in-laws, grandparents and grandchildren. Copy photograph taken October 4, 2007. Courtesy Sheila Salas Sheila Salas, Michelle Salas Stratmore, Skyler Stratmore MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT

When Sheila Salas' sister developed breast cancer, Salas took more than a month off from work. She drove her to chemotherapy appointments. She administered her sister's weekly injections. When the cancer worsened, Salas took her sister into her San Rafael home and dressed and bathed her.

Almost one year ago, on Oct. 25, Salas' sister died in her arms.

If her sister had instead been her mother or daughter, she would have received up to six weeks of paid time off under California's 3-year-old paid family leave law. But because the patient was Salas' sister, her time off went unpaid.

Such limits could change soon.

State legislators have sent several bills to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would expand the scope of California's family leave laws to cover siblings, in-laws and grandparents. A spokesman for the Republican governor said Thursday that he has not taken a position on the bills, which would give California the most far-reaching family leave policy in the country. He has until Oct. 14 to decide whether to sign them.

Supporters say the bills are a compassionate response to the needs of today's diverse families - where most adults are working, families are often spread across the country, and caregiving responsibilities can easily fall on in-laws, grandchildren or siblings.

"These bills grew out of heart-wrenching calls to legal hot lines where people would say their brother was dying of cancer, and they were the only family member around," said Netsy Firestein, director of the Labor Project for Working Families, a Berkeley nonprofit group. "They'd ask how to apply for paid family leave, and we'd have to say, 'You can't.' "

"It has become increasingly difficult to replace these workers," said association spokesman Gino DiCaro. "California already is one of the most expensive places to do business. These bills are going to have some pretty significant impacts on human resource departments and production abilities."

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act requires businesses with 50 or more workers to allow up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for personal illness, bonding with a new child or serious illness of a parent, dependent child or spouse.

And California has two state laws to support people who need time off because of a family illness:

-- The California Family Rights Act mirrors the federal law but also provides unpaid leave to care for domestic partners.

-- California additionally gives workers up to six weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child or care for a seriously ill parent, child, spouse or domestic partner. This program, funded through employee payroll deductions to the state's disability insurance fund, pays 55 percent of the employee's wages, up to a maximum of $882 per week.

Since the paid family leave law took effect in July 2004, more than 500,000 Californians have filed claims and received $1.1 billion in paid time off, according to the state Employment Development Department.

A few Californians applied for paid leave but were turned down because their relatives weren't covered by the law. The state has denied 191 claims to care for a seriously ill sibling, 104 for a grandparent, 53 for a mother- or father-in-law and 50 for a grandchild.

Salas was among those denied.

"That hurt. It really hurt," said Salas, who worked in accounts payable for Pacific Pulmonary Services in Novato when her sister Kathleen Murphy became ill. "I was there, giving her injections, feeding her, giving her morphine. She died in my arms. I was everything for her - mother, father, son, daughter. I promised her I would not put her in a nursing home, that I'd be with her to the end, and I was. How dare the state say that I was not eligible."

Carina Barlow was another Bay Area resident who, like Salas, needed time off to care for a relative who fell outside the coverage of the laws.

Barlow was a medical records clerk for Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo two years ago when her brother had a heart attack at age 45. He was single, their other siblings lived in Texas and their mother was 80 years old and unable to drive, so Barlow ended up in charge of her brother's care.

Unlike Salas, Barlow was told she could not take any time off to visit her brother in the hospital or drive him to doctors' appointments as he recovered. Although she had some accrued vacation, she wasn't allowed to use it without two weeks' notice.

Ironically, she said, Kaiser would have given her paid bereavement leave if her brother had died, but not to help him recover.

"My supervisor said, 'You can't use your sick leave because he's a sibling, and that (family leave) only goes for parents or children,' " said Barlow, who has since left Kaiser and moved to Utah. "How sad that Kaiser would have paid me for three days off to bury my brother, but wouldn't give me time off while he is alive to help him get better. ... I never want another person to be treated the way I was by my employer, to be told who I could take care of in my family."

A Kaiser spokeswoman said individual managers have the discretion to approve or turn down leaves to care for siblings.

The two bills designed to help caregivers like Barlow and Salas are SB727 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and AB537 by Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda.

SB727 would extend the paid family leave program to include care for seriously ill siblings, grandparents, grandchildren and parents-in-law.

AB537 would extend the state's 12 weeks of unpaid leave to that same group.

Meanwhile, another bill on the governor's desk - SB836, also by Kuehl - would prohibit employment discrimination based on a worker's family status, including a role as a caregiver.

Business groups said the anti-discrimination bill would open the door to frivolous lawsuits.

"Since many employees have a spouse, child, parent or sibling that might need supervision or transportation, familial status can serve as a new, easy form of discrimination to allege," the California Chamber of Commerce said in a written statement.

But backers said the bill is needed to ensure that caregivers receive the same treatment as other workers.

"If everyone at a company is required to work 80 hours a week, that's not discrimination," said Joan Williams, director of the Center on WorkLife Law at UC's Hastings College of the Law. "But if they give Joe time off to go see a baseball game, they can't all of a sudden get rigid with caregivers."

Across the country, workplace experts are watching to see whether the bills are signed into law.

"If all these three bills are signed, it would reinforce California's position as having the most family-friendly policies in the nation," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group.

The anti-discrimination bill would go further than any other state. Alaska and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting workplace discrimination based on caregiving for children, but not for other relatives, Ness said.

The two bills extending leave to people with ill siblings, in-laws and grandparents would also go further than laws in any other state. However, their coverage would not be quite as broad as San Francisco's new paid sick leave law.

The San Francisco law - which took effect in February - requires all employers to provide up to 72 hours of paid sick leave each year for workers' own illnesses or to care for ill family members.

It defines family members as spouses, domestic partners, children, grandchildren, grandparents and siblings. The city's ordinance doesn't include in-laws. But it does allow workers without a spouse or domestic partner to specify an unrelated "designated person," such as a neighbor, for whom they can use their sick leave.

The California Manufacturers and Technology Association said that defeating the statewide bills is one of its top priorities for this legislative session. "There will be indirect costs (to the leave bills), such as massive absenteeism and an inability to backfill spots with skilled workers," said spokesman DiCaro.

But other business groups are not as strongly opposed. For instance, the California Chamber of Commerce didn't include any of the bills in its list of the top 30 "job killers" of the legislative session.

And while the chamber opposes the unpaid leave bill and the anti-discrimination bill, it hasn't taken a position on SB836, the bill extending California's paid sick leave program to siblings, grandparents and in-laws.

Bills on the governor's desk

Unpaid leave

AB537 would allow California workers to use their 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for seriously ill siblings, mothers- and fathers-in-law, adult nondependent children, grandparents and grandchildren.

Paid leave

SB727 would allow workers to use their six weeks of Paid Family Leave to care for seriously ill siblings, mothers- and fathers-in-law, grandparents and grandchildren.

Anti-discrimination

SB836 would prohibit employment discrimination based on a worker's family status, including his or her role as caregiver for a family member.

Family leave laws in California

What the laws say

-- The California Family Rights Act says that firms with 50 or more workers must provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for serious personal illness, bonding with a new baby, or caring for a seriously ill dependent child, parent, spouse or domestic partner.

-- The state's Paid Family Leave program provides up to six weeks of partial pay for personal illness, baby bonding or caring for an ill parent, spouse, domestic partner or child of any age. The money comes from employee payroll deductions for State Disability Insurance.

-- San Francisco's paid sick leave law requires all employers to provide up to 72 hours of paid sick leave each year. This can be used for personal medical needs or to care for a sick parent, child, spouse, domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, sibling or unrelated "designated person."

What you can do

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must decide whether to sign these bills into law by Oct. 14. Let the governor know what you think through his Web site at gov.ca.gov/interactor by calling (916) 445-2841.

The text, history and legislative analyses of these family leave bills are available at www.leginfo.ca.gov.

You can find arguments opposing these bills on the Web site of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association at links.sfgate.com/ZBBL.

You can find arguments in favor of these bills on the Web site of the Labor Project for Working Families at www.paidfamilyleave.org.